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GOP wants full Senate on the record before Town Meeting break next week
by Guy Page
With concerned Town Meeting voters in mind, the Senate voted along party lines this morning to not liberate a Clean Heat Standard repeal bill from a Democrat-controlled committee.
The vote was requested by Rutland Republican Sen. Terry Williams. H.68, ‘repealing the Affordable Heat Act’ (AKA the fossil-fuel transitioning Clean Heat Standard) will stay in Natural Resources and Energy over the objections of Senate Republicans.
During discussion of Williams’ request, Chair Anne Watson (D-Washington) said she would (for the first time this year) take the bill ‘off the wall’ and discuss it Thursday. “I have not been stonewalling the issue,” she said.
Williams and other Republicans wanted to see action – preferably, repeal – on the Clean Heat Standard they ran against last November. And they want to tell Town Meeting voters next week that some progress is being made. They were able to secure a roll-call vote on which all 17 Democrats voted No on bringing H.68 to the floor, and all 13 Republican voted Yes. As one Republican said after, the vote allows GOP senators to show to Town Meeting voters next week that they are on the record as trying to repeal the Clean Heat.
“The voters told us loudly that they want us to do something,” Sen. Randy Brock (R-Franklin) said. At Town Meeting they will ask, ‘what are you doing about this?,’ he said.
Brock then asked Watson whether she expects the discussion Thursday to lead to a committee vote sending H.68 to the floor.
On that point, Watson was noncommittal. “The intention is to have a conversation with the members,” she said. “In a world where we have enough time, it is possible that we have a path to find a partisan agreement.”
Democrats urged respect for the committee process by which Watson has heretofore kept S.68 tacked to the wall. Several senators, including Pro Tem Phil Baruth (D-Chittenden), reminded the minority they could at will bring bills now under Republican chair control, if they wished. They reminded their minority colleagues that the Senate is a deliberative, process-oriented body, where surprises and shortcuts are unwelcome.
As Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale told fellow Dems in a pre-floor caucus, “the Senate is a place where tea goes to cool.”
Specific to the CHS, Senate Dems reminded the full body that implementing the Clean Heat Standard program requires an act of legislation – which, Watson said, is not forthcoming at this time. Minority Leader Scott Beck said repeal is a more positive step as simply allowing the CHS to lay low creates opportunities for the Senate to advance it.
Sen. Becca White (D-Windsor) said there is strong support for Vermont’s climate legislation. More than 500 Vermonters called the State House yesterday to oppose H.289, a Republican bill which would soften requirements of the Global Warming Solutions,
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Categories: Energy, Legislation
REPEAL is the only option!
I would remind Sen White that there was strong support for the additional Republicans sitting in the well of the Senate Chamber, where Democrats once sat. Some get it and some don’t. Every two years, without failure, we have an election, Sen White.
And who shall step.up.and run against her? Time to find that person now.
Watson is stonewalling –
And in her area prog/Dems are in control over poverty driven areas. How can we change that?
More Democrats need to go come 2026.
Dem and Rhinos have destroyed Vermont .
time to rise from the ashes and Restore. vermont for its people .
Even without the theoretical ‘Clean Heat Standard’ taxes and fees tacked on, my minimum fuel delivery rose by $75 over a six-week time span this winter. Until Vermont is DOGE’d, we won’t know who’s being paid off, and by whom, to keep pushing the Green New Scam. Will they run for the exits, or stick around and take their medicine?
“More than 500 Vermonters called the State House yesterday to oppose H.289”. How many of the calls were from employees at Efficiency Vermont and other entities that benefit financially from the the Renewable Energy Standard legislation? Sometimes legislators make statements that show a lack of awareness of reality that is concerning.
It is important to remember there are BILLIONS at stake. You can be assured that the lobbyists organized a phone campaign yesterday. You can also be assured that legislative “leadership”, baruth. krowinski and the committee heads have their orders. watson will follow those orders, and this legislature will run out the clock, leaving the GWSA and Act 18 in place, adding a transportation sector carbon tax
that starts slowly- Like boiling frogs- then all at once like california.
Love it ! I’d love to see Elon or someone like him, dive into the socialist wish list that is the Vermont legislative agenda, with a big pair of…scissors… and responsibly cut the budget to the bare necessities that the government was meant to provide. I once spoke to one of the bean counters at 1 Baldwin (joint physical) as to why the government did not set a budget at the beginning of the legislative season and stick to it like every citizen of the state has to. I asked him, “what do you think my boss would say if I told him, I just bought a new truck, and you now have to give me a raise to pay for it”? That is what the government does to us every year. The answer I received was that the government could not function that way. I don’t believe that. State government should get a budget and a COLA based on last year’s budget, that’s it ! No haggling, no unknowns, no excuses ! Run the government like a household..Responsibly ! JMO
The clean heat standard is a very flawed bill which unfairly hurts those least able to bear the costs and puts ridicoulous burdens on are fuel companies and might put many smaller ones out of business. Worst of all, it would have no real impact on a problem that needs to be addressed on a national and international level. It should be repealed .
I agree.
“”As Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale told fellow Dems in a pre-floor caucus, “the Senate is a place where tea goes to cool.”” Hey Ram Hinsdale, has ANY gun control bill EVER gone to the Senate to “cool”? I think not, DON’T let the so called “clean heat standard cool either! Put or shut up, we’re all watching and it won’t take much on the next election round to pare down your power even more still!
Vermont would be a wonderful, stress free, comfortable, and fun place to live if it wasn’t for those democrats, and rinos, that left other flawed blue states seeking to contaminate our paradise.
Amen
The Senate NRE committee has lined up the state climatologist and unregistered lobbyist Jared Duval of Energy Action network to testify on Thursday ahead of taking up the Clean Heat Standard repeal bill, setting the table to sow fear about flooding and making the irrational case for how much money Vermonters will save by adopting the Clean Heat Standard, to try to make the attempt to address the ridiculously expensive, complicated and unnecessary legislation look foolish. The games people play.
Oh, and those 500 messages, those were from 350vt. It is disappointing to see that nothing has changed, that the majority is listening to the green groups working for their funders, and not changing course in any way. Which means wasting everyone’s time until the end of the session when Gov. Scott will have to sharpen his veto pen. It’s no better on the House side where they’ve had Duval in twice already. But not to worry, he isn’t lobbying.
It wasn’t that long ago that “acid rain” was the crisis du jour. Sulphur Dioxide and other emissions from mid-west coal plants were blamed for the ph levels decreasing in the waters of the Green Mountain State. These pollutants were airborne and drifted east, falling out of the atmosphere in the northeast states. Would anyone suppose that unregistered lobbyist jared duval of the energy action network can make a case that the levels of co2 will be reduced over Vermont by the outcome of the GWSA? Or will the co2 entering the atmosphere in western states end up mixing with the atmosphere and co2 levels remain static?
The religion of CLimateCHange™ and evangelists such as duval certainly have brainwashed a whole lot of otherwise intelligent folks.
There are BILLIONS at stake, just in Vermont.
The games people play now,
every night and every day now,
never meaning what they say now,
never saying what they mean.
Joe South
As I have said in the past. They hate you. They dispise the voters. The only way to fix this is vote them out! There are 30% of the voters who will never not vote for the communists, where are the rest of you?
Unfortunately, NOYB, the percentage of voters you reference is underestimated. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 40% of the Vermont workforce is employed in three sectors: Education, Healthcare, and Government… all heavily subsidized by legislative mandates (State and Federal).
And while there is some overlap, keep in mind that Vermont has more non-profit NGOs per capita than any other state. These are the non-profits like The Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) and the parent company of Efficiency Vermont, Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC) that lobby the legislature to mandate the spending that feathers their own nests.
And then add the relatives of these people.
The only thing that will stop this ‘waste, corruption, and abuse’ is bankruptcy. And we’re in that process as we speak. Buckle your seatbelts.
Thank you, Jay. Succinct and spot-on.
No surprise there, they all get money for pushing the hoax.
The GWSA (and its’ evil spawn The Clean Heat Standard) was ill-advised and must be amended. VT can achieve no appreciable results in fighting climate change and any thinking that it can is merely virtue signaling. I don’t want any of my tax dollars wasted defending lawsuits from political action groups who are waiting to take advantage of these unattainable mandates. Repeal the Clean Heat Standard and amend the language in the GWSA to state carbon reduction is a goal not a mandate. Instead of futile attempts to fight climate change, direct resources toward combating the effects of a changing climate. Flood resilience should be first on that list and is something that can be accomplished to a greater degree than any hopes of stopping climate change.
…please comment with real, full name, thank you…